Character Similarity in Shakespeare's King Lear

1408 Words3 Pages

There are billions of people in the entire world, however, chances such as certain individual shares the same personality, height, or hobbies of other people who live in the opposite extreme of the globe is ultimately bizarre. In a similar idea, a William Shakespeare’s play, entitled King Lear demonstrates the similarities of people, particularly through the work of relativeness that runs in blood. The play revolves around King Lear and his three daughters, along with a parallel sub-plot of Gloucester and his two sons. Mainly, Lear banishes and disowns Cordelia, one of his daughters, and grants the other two, Goneril and Regan with his inheritance and power. But unfortunately, Goneril and Regan eventually betrays Lear, whereas Cordelia comes back to save him. Also, the play corresponds to a well-known phrase, “like father, like daughter”, which genuinely refers to Lear and his daughters. Altogether, King Lear’s existence as a father projects distinguishable affinities between his and the lives of his daughters. The father and daughters’ similarities vary solely depending on how the characters exhibit their actions through their own will.
First of all, Goneril is the eldest and “one of the villainous daughters of King Lear” (Boyce), as she declares her great love for Lear in exchange to a portion of her father’s kingdom. Throughout the play, Lear and Goneril are seen alike by means of the motif of blindness that links them together as a father and daughter. Primarily, Goneril is not literally blind and so does Lear, yet they are blinded by the illusions that flow in their minds. Goneril is blinded over the power and inheritance that Lear gives her and still not contented by plotting against Lear by saying, “Pray you let’s hit to...

... middle of paper ...

... destiny of each holds. Goneril is similar to Lear through the theme of blindness and madness combined together. Regan, on the other hand, is like Lear because they both experienced as ill-fated destiny that their own loved ones committed to them. Lastly, Cordelia is said to be parallel to Lear because of their imperfection as human beings and also their illustration of Christ and Mary in Christian viewpoint. In the end, every characters involve, possess a likeness, whether it is in good or bad way.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Ken Roy. 2nd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2002. Print.
Boyce, Charles. "Cordelia." Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Facts
On File, Inc. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. 11 November 2013.

Open Document